Thursday, January 5, 2012

Preparation IQ: Part 2



Part two in our Presentation IQ Series focuses on a banquet speech I delivered tonight.

Details

30 adults, kick-off banquet for community leadership program, second time I have presented for group, most audience members hadn't heard me before, purpose was to be light-hearted and provide leadership inspiration.

Prep Techniques

- The most important element for banquet talks is to provide a simple formula or outline for the audience to follow. Keep it light. Nobody wants to "work" thoughtfully at a meal event. Therefore, I chose my Impact Model as the outline: Influence, Spirit, Class, Legacy. The content also fit one of the purposes - to provide leadership inspiration.

- Emotional content just works at evening meal functions; people are more pliable and ready to be entertained and moved. So, I combed through my material and pulled out a few fun stories, humorous bits, engaging yet location-appropriate activities (everyone had pen and paper), etc.

- This is a good time to mention where I go to access my resources and material. I primarily use Evernote. It is a free note-taking software for the computer, web and any iOS device. It syncs across all devices, you can create categories, you can search by key word, and much more! I have over 1,300 notes, but when I prep for a program, I really only need to look through two - one that has a wholesale list of all the activities I regularly lead and one that lists out all of my stories/acronyms/lists/etc. I also use Dropbox for repeatable handouts/posters/activity sheets/etc.

Good luck!

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